Better SEO Option, 1 Site 3 Subdomains or 4 Separate Sites?

[MonsterWeb28]

Hey Mozzers,

I'm working with a client who wants to redo their web presence.  They have a a main website for the umbrella and then 3 divisions which have their own website as well.

My question is:  Is it better to have the main site on the main domain and then have the 3 separate sites be subdomains? Or 4 different domains with a linking structure to tie them all together?

To my understanding option 1 would include high traffic for 1 domain and option 2 would be building Page Authority by having 4 different sites linking to each other?

My guess would be option 2, only if all 4 sites start getting relevant authority to make the links of value.  But right out of the gates option 1 might be more beneficial.

A little advice/clarification would be great!

[Chris.Menke]

If you already have the 4 sites running on different domains, each has different content, and you linking sparingly and appropriately between the domains, I'd call it a toss up as to whether it's better to keep them separate or bring them together.  Have you looked into buddypress for managing the separate domains within a single CMS?  I think it can handle that.

[MonsterWeb28]

Hey Tom,

Thanks for answering our question.  Basically our sites are a parent company/ministry, a kids mentoring/tutoring ministry, a medical center ministry, and a food pantry ministry.

They all have their own domain and website currently but need to be updated.  We are looking at combining the sites administrative functionality to allow for authors of each individual site as well as super authors for all sites.

So, the question is, should each site continue to have its own domain as they each will have unique content or should they be setup with subdomains becasue they are all apart of the same network.

Here is an example of a website setup very similar --> http://www.interlochen.org/

Thank you for further clarification/time on this matter.

[TomRayner]

I think the main question should be what these 3 'sub-sites' are.

Are they individual brands/businesses that can stand-alone and offer unique content on each domain?  Do they cover different industries/niches?

If the answer to either of those is no, then I'd keep it all on the same domain.  Option 2 runs the risk of looking like a link network (existing solely to boost up the main website), which, if discovered, could heavily penalise your website.

Even if that was to be avoided, I'd still recommend keeping all of your content on one domain, unless the other sites are completely different.  This is because that any content you do produce that may accrue links or social shares will go straight to the main domain - that direct link will be the strongest SEO signal out of the lot.  Building sub-sites just to blog/build content to accrue links to the main site is pointless unless those sites get their own links - in which case, why not have that content on your site anyway, in the form of a subdomain or sub-folder?

I'd only consider splitting the sites up if they target very different industries/niches.  If they do, they will need to be fleshed out with considerable content to avoid looking like a link-network.

Simply creating microsites to create content that links to the main site just seems pointless, particularly if that content can be hosted on your domain, which would then get all the links/social signals anyway.

Hope this helps.